Hamilton Heights’ basketball star has over 1,100 career points as a junior, but she doesn’t let that diminish her sense of humility
By RICHIE HALL
sports@readthereporter.com
Ever since the first time she put on a Hamilton Heights uniform, Camryn Runner has been scoring for the Huskies.
Flashback to her first game on Nov. 20, 2020, when Heights played at Lebanon. Runner made two 3-pointers in the first quarter, and eventually scored 15 points in the game. It was a big debut for Runner, and she hasn’t let up – she has over 1,100 career points, with her senior year still to come.
Now a junior, Runner is averaging almost 19 points per game. She also is the Huskies’ top rebounder, pulling seven per contest. Heights coach Keegan Cherry did the math, and found that Runner accounts for 44 percent of the scoring and 43 percent of the rebounds.
Runner is a great basketball player, and the great ones also have a sense of humility and camaraderie about them as well. In fact, while talking after a recent game, Runner constantly mentioned her teammates and coaches, and how much their support helps her.
“I don’t think I could do it without them,” she said.
The Huskies are 16-5 this year, and will finish up their regular season tonight against Heritage Christian. Heights plays a difficult schedule every year, and this campaign has been no exception. The Huskies strength of schedule, according to the Sagarin ratings, is 40th in the state.
Yet despite the tough schedule, Heights has put together 18-win seasons over the past two years. That includes a pair of sectional championships. Runner made major contributions to both seasons, averaging 17 points per game during both her freshman and sophomore years.
Runner comes from a basketball family, as her older sisters Ashton and Bayleigh both played for the Huskies. Ashton graduated from Hamilton Heights in 2017, while Bayleigh graduated in 2020. Both were successful players in their own right, and Camryn learned quite a bit by watching her older siblings.
“Bayleigh facilitated the offense,” said Camryn Runner. “She was Coach Cherry’s right-hand man on the court. She was the general. I just learned from her how to play smart. Ashton was the athletic one. I learned from her to not bust my face open on the ground. She made great plays, don’t get me wrong. She was an athlete. But watching her, I learned, again, play for the girls next to you. She always kept her teammates’ heads held high. Bayleigh did the same, motivated, lining up for offense.”
“I always say, great kids have great parents,” said Cherry. “She has a great family and that shows in her and the way she carries herself at school. Shows in the way she carries herself at practice. That’s why her teammates are her friends. They’re a close group because she doesn’t have an ego. It’s not about her. There’s nobody bigger than she is. She’s all about the program and has been. That’s how her sisters were. That’s how her family is. That’s how she was raised. And that translates over in to now. You want a gym full of Camryn Runners.”
The Huskies play intense during games, and that starts with practice. Runner says she and her teammates “bring the energy” when it comes to preparing for games.
“We try and make it as competitive as possible,” said Runner. “Coach is on the sidelines driving us and making it a point: You got to bring fight, like, they’re going to be bigger. Every opponent this year has pretty much been bigger than us, and he’s like, ‘You have to stay motivated. You have to match their intensity.’
That intensity has paid off, as the Huskies have had a winning season ever since Cherry became their coach in 2016. And Cherry respects Runner not just for what she can do on the basketball court, but off the court as well.
“She’s awesome in the classroom,” said Cherry. “She’s awesome in the community. I’ve said that a million times. She’s a high-character kid. She represents our program and the best everything at Hamilton Heights. That is Camryn Runner.”
“At the end of the day, I’m playing the game for the girls next to me and the coaches,” said Runner.
Cherry said that Runner is getting offers to play basketball at Division I schools. He firmly believes that Runner is a D-I player, noting that “her basketball IQ and the way she approaches the game is what’s going to allow her to translate and play at a high level in her basketball career after high school. Somebody’s going to get a fantastic basketball player that is extremely smart on the court, works hard, humble. She has everything you want as a coach.”
And if there are any doubts, Cherry invites these coaches to watch Runner play.
“And when coaches get to see her play, it doesn’t take very long for them to go, ‘Hey, we want you at our school,’” said Cherry. “We just say, get her in front of more recruits.”